EU sending senior diplomats back to Iraq

European Union foreign ministers agreed yesterday to send senior diplomats back to Baghdad in an effort to push forward the reconstruction of Iraq.

Meeting on the Greek resort island of Rhodes, the 25 foreign ministers of current and future EU member states also urged Israel and Palestinians to start immediately implementing the newly published "road map" for peace between the two sides.

They said the EU would also start to lobby neighbouring states such as Syria and Iran to support the roadmap. The ministers from the 15 EU member states and the 10 mostly ex-communist countries set to join the bloc next May met at a time of simmering tension and distrust in their ranks over Iraq and how to handle relations with the United States.

But British Foreign Minister Jack Straw, whose country's involvement in the US-led invasion was a key source of EU friction, said the meeting marked a seachange in cooperation.

"It is a very obvious fact that the EU was divided over Iraq on military action. It was clear today that people wanted to put that behind us," Straw told reporters.

Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou, whose country holds the current EU presidency, announced the return of senior diplomats the day after US President George W. Bush said main military operations in the Arab country had ended.

"We agreed, all 25 countries, to give the order for the return of the charges d'affaires of our countries to Iraq," Foreign Minister Papandreou told a news conference at the end of the first day of the two-day meeting.

Foreign Minister Papandreou said the move would boost the EU's presence in Iraq. "It will enhance our activities in the humanitarian sector and in the evaluation on the ground," he said.

The 15-nation bloc was bitterly divided over the US-led war, with Germany and France spearheading opposition to the strike and Britain, Spain and others supporting Washington.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said the ministers agreed the bloc's two top foreign policy officials - EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten - would coordinate EU humanitarian efforts.

Commissioner Patten was also asked to start talks with international institutions such as the World Bank to prepare for the reconstruction of Iraq which the EU has already pledged to help with 700 million euros in aid.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said most EU members still firmly believed that it should be the United Nations that should be in charge of Iraq reconstruction rather than Washington's preference to oversee the country.